"If you can't win, change the rules." this is what we should do with financial crisis.

Peter Diamandis in the one of his talks said "If you can't win, change the rules" and this is what we should do with financial crisis. We have got now much better technology and ideas so we should use these all of things to make better future. We should stop listen politicians and we should just take care about ourself. In this way we can use the Internet as a tool for direct democracy which could change the rules and could let us win.

Apr 2 2012:
Tyler, I made a long answer above to your question. The reason we have so many problems is that the rules keep changing and we continue to lose. These changes are almost always smoke and mirrors. Politicians say what is necessary to stay on the gravey train. Return to Constitutional government, the feds have four areas to administer stick to that and return the power to the states where it was originally assigned. Stop listening to the party platform and learn to think things through and seperate the "hope and change" into "truth, knowledge, and responsibility". Stop the "free" promises and know that there are no free lunches .. someone always has to pay. Take the checkbook away from irresponsible spenders and hold them accountable. If you and I outspend our income we go to jail. That should happen at the highest level where the trust of the people has been violated. As long as there are no consequences there will always be stupid political decisions. Your reply to Tomasz stated there is no need to talk about war .... we are in a war for our very survival in the US. This is the most important election I can think of. I can no longer support the current administration and will vote to save the Republic and not follow the party platform. Sorry to stand on the soap box. We the people do govern through our vote. Make it count. All the best. Bob.

Apr 8 2012:
It seems that America was built on the "free lunch" paid for by someone else. What about homesteading in the good old days? What about the mining law of 1872? What about the railroads getting "alternating sections". Really, it was all stolen from the original inhabitants. All the natural resources were "free" if you had the money and force to take them. The problem is its all gone! Weren't the original "settlers" saying " we don't want to get along with these people, let's just change the rules, kill them and take their stuff."? Let's put aside the "return to original principles" that really didn't exist. I'm certainly no advocate of ANY of these big govt schemes, after all, I'm a gypsy. When the golden age is restored will you legalize nomadism? You know of course that "illegal lodging" is the law of the land. The public lands belong to the people who have an economic reason to occupy them and sell people on the idea that it's in the "public interest" to encourage corporate use of them. Hounded from pillar to post if you just want sleep there.

Apr 9 2012:
No rule can please everybody equally. we can see how many conflicts are arising even when 2 - 3 political parties are trying to set new rules. so what would be the case if many millions of people try to do it together??

Mar 28 2012:
The way I understand it, the rules are not the problem, it is our attitude towards lending. We are collectively responsible for those in power, and despite technological advances, problems will not just disappear overnight.

Changing the rules can only go so far, and while a great ideal, it not as a solution to the financial crisis. We can't write off debt with creative thoughts.

Apr 7 2012:
The financial crisis is one manufactured by those who control the money. Bad decisions are not fixed with new rules and the current world issue of a financial crisis is a manufactured problem.

Apr 8 2012:
Lets look at recent decisions. Cap and Trade was voted down by the US Presidents own party as being a bad idea and destructive to the US future. The President set on Socialism, issued Exuctive orders through the Secretary of Energy to set Cap and Trade energy rules to become effective within 5 years. The owners of coal fired power plants have served notice if Obama is relected and these rules remain coal fired power will cease to exist. The President invested and supported heavily in "green" alternative fuels and lost taxpayer "our" money. He changed the rules and made bad decisions which may well be the death knoll for us industry and the beginning of massive government takovers, ergo, socialism his goal and that of his advisor and benifactor George Siros.

Apr 8 2012:
I guess what you have told me above shows that it is a manufactured crisis. Bad decisions by parties in power with incomplete understandings of economics or economics that do not work create the crisis by choice thus manufactured. I have no connection to Soros and am not even sure what he intends to create. Since a socialist state would not add to his wealth this seems counter productive. Is he driven by the ideal that he can make and break governments>
Does this clear up my thinking for you?

Apr 9 2012:
First google George Soros and selct from: GS Obama; GS Biography; GS Evil; GS Nazi Colllaborator; GS Wikipedia; GS Foundation; etc ..... I know that there is one book in publication but have not read any others. George Soros and Union Leaders are the most frequent White House visitors. BBC News, which I often view for another perspective, asked why only FOX News had voiced concern over the Obama and Soros connection. They expressed extreme concern over the US's news media (written, radio, and TV) being ultra liberal and "in bed" with Obama. This could explain why more Americans are not aware of Soros' influence over the US President. Best. Bob

Mar 29 2012:
"If you can't win, change the rules" This is a great motto. But we must respect its limits.

Politicians are nothing but our representatives. We elect them through a fair and transparent process. In a way, what they say is the voice of the majority. We are the people who put them in the seat of power and gave them a voice to speak on behalf of us.

Using Internet as a tool for a direct democracy is a radical new idea that is being suggested by many people. Before going ahead with this, we must look into many of the issues surrounding it, such as penetration, accessibility etc. Once
all these are sorted out, Internet can be a very powerful tool to aid democracy.

If everybody stops following rules just because the situtation is not in their favour, utter chaos will reign. It will benefit nobody in the long run. Robert Winner has summed this up quite nicely in his comment.

Mar 28 2012:
In this video, Diamandis shares a wonderful message. Being in the Learning Technologies PhD program at the University of Minnesota, I am a firm believer in the power of exponentially growing technologies to address “humanities grand challenges.”

These are some of my favorite points in the video:
- Teach students how technologies can be used to solve humanities grand challenges.
- Start a company, product, or service that can affect positively the lives of a billion people within a decade.
- Creating abundance; a life of possibility.
- Technology is a resource-liberating force.
- Abundance in energy from the sun, abundance of water, abundance in communications, abundance in health and education.

Diamandis provides great examples of the potential and possibilities of technology to solve humanities grand challenges.

How does this apply to the financial crisis?
I think “the financial crisis” is such a broad topic. Perhaps new technologies could be applied to different issues that countries face individually, but I don’t think one technology could be used a panacea for all financial crises in every country around the globe.

Communication technology has the capacity to encourage and support the participation of more people in democracy and help them to organize in order to create a better quality of life.

Apr 22 2012:
Doesn't the crisis actually begin with the quote, wasn't the 80's rush for deregulation exactly about changing the rules, having less rules and making sure the remaining were able to be overturn (that is destiny of a rule).
Today I do think that some rules were already changed think about haircut on Greek debt, Central Bank submission to political power, and the subsequent pumping of money for free in the banking system or the renationalisation of YPF by Argentina.
Then two questions strikes: Who change the rules and for the benefits of whom are the rules changed ? Is it for the most of us, ideally all of us, or for a smaller subset or for a very small elite.
The only thing we as democratic human beings can do is defend our ideas, be socially involved to spread change ideas and last but not least VOTE for change

Apr 16 2012:
I am in agreement here. Old outdated rules are still running the asylum. Shock everyone into submission.
Guided by religious beliefs(read guilt) we have accepted that people should die of starvation, economies should collapse, before we step on our grandfathers outdated moral boundaries.
Fact, we are flying on a rock through space around a gigantic nuclear fireball. We all could parish in the next second by an incoming comet.
Do not waste time. Use TED as a forum for world economic change, now.
How? Well that is the question isn't it? Let's get on with finding the answer.

Apr 11 2012:
Neoliberal economic thinking needs to be done with. This much is obvious. All it does is create a never ending series of economic bubbles and super-bubbles that all eventually pop. Then when things get really bad the rhetoric of "to big to fail" rears it's ugly head. Then governments intervene to financially bail-out the entities who cause the bubbles. Then the governments accumulate debt. Then they print more money. Hello inflation. And on it goes...

If "new rules" aren't created then it's just a question not if but when the house of cards comes tumbling down again. I don't know what they would be though. Some say a total free market with zero government intervention (Austrian economics)... others look at the Scandinavian model and think that's what the world ought to move towards.

Apr 11 2012:
I beleive the problem is with the currency system - mainly that FIAT currency has no intrinsic value. I've come up with an alternative currency system, an energy based system, which for the sake of debate is called banana bucks. Have a look at www.bananabucks.org for the details. Let me know what you think.

Apr 24 2012:
I read your book. I wanted to learn about your utopia - but now I see it's more of a Fruitopia...

;)

Just kidding - I'm in the mood for Simpsons references.

So, your Fundament is like an closed bubble-economy dealing strictly with energy-products, the relationship between those products and its monetary value, and the printing/distribution of that money to employees of the Fundament (assumably farmers, educators, miners, et. al.) and to the general people. The people then use the currency to spend the energy produced/stored/distributed by the Fundament in an open market system which deals with all matters of art and luxury (non-energy-products). It's like a relationship between a "socialist" economic bubble (only in the sense that it is a centralized and unrivaled organization, I understand that it's not controlled by the government) dealing with energy-products, and a capitalist market dealing with all art/culture/luxury. Or have I misread?

Just to note that the freemarket (capitalist market) can use the energy from the Fundament in its production. For example, a car requires water and electricity to make, and that energy can be supplied by the Fundament. The cars price will include the the cost of the energy from the Fundament.

The most concise description I can think of is a currency system that provides energy as the intrinsic value that the currency is based on.

Apr 3 2012:
I think this 'changing the rules' could really work. I think most of the worlds problems are systemic. The approach I would take is to recognize and list the systemic problems and then develop solutions to either correct or work around the problem.

Solutions might require changing legislation, or creating an organization or platform to do things in another way. I think the most effective strategies will be to offer a superior alternative where people can just opt out of the dysfunctional system and their success will win people over to the new system until the dysfunctional system withers and dies.

An example: Intellectual property laws are designed to encourage innovation. They incentivize innovation but restrict building off that innovation or fully exploiting potential. They are prone to abuse. I believe there are a host of other problems that are more complex and subtle but also serious. As technologies and ideas comes faster and cheaper the incentive to innovate is needed less but the amount of restriction to build off innovation or exploit potentials of new innovations grows.

We could try to change the laws to reflect this but that isn't very realistic. Perhaps an intellectual property cooperative would be better. Companies/individuals who join the cooperative can use each other ideas freely (perhaps with royalties?) but have to share all intellectual property with the cooperative. These companies would have a significant competitive advantage and eventually companies that don't opt in would wither and die. Eventually ideas would be shared freely. Obviously this concept needs some fleshing out but it's a good example of working around the system.

Apr 2 2012:
Tyler Blackwell challenged me to provide a more serious answer. I will. First why is there a financial crisis? Administrations around the world are spending more than the treasury is bringing in. We cannot win and changing the rules will not make it happen. A minority of the population and some administrations want something for "free". There is no such thing. Grow up. I relate government thinking to day light savings time. Only the government could believe that if you cut six inches off of the top of a blanket and sew it to the bottom of the blanket you have a longer blanket. There is no need to change the rules to win. What needs to happen is to clear all of the gimicks, smoke and mirrors, and pollitical BS out of the way and go back to the basics. simple math. You either have money in the bank or not. If not then spending is dumb and will land you in jail even if you are the President. The federal government has four duties. Go back to the Constitutional government and eliminate all of the others and save trillions a year. Return power to the states where is was originally assigned. To be fair Obama is not the US's biggest problem. It is the people who elected him and believed all of the promises of hope and change. Cap & trade, dream act, instant citizenship, and especially Obama care will be the coupe de grace for a already weak US ecomony. These are appealing to the NOW generation but are NOT long term solutions. So Tyler my answer is grow up and be responsible in action and deeds is the solution. Use the tool of common sense and be smart enough to know a political scam by someone who just wants a vote. If they say the rules do not apply to the officials (Obama care) ... smell the rat and jump the ship. Stop being sheeple and learn to think for yourself. If you do not vote you should not have a say in in events until the next election when you cast a vote. I feel better now. All the best. Bob.

I think you're hitting on something very powerful and important. As time continues to move forward in the age of the internet, it is difficult not to notice the ineffectual nature of our "representative" government. Comedian Joe Rogan talks a lot about this on his podcast (along with an assortment of other fascinating explicit themes), "The Joe Rogan Experience," about how eventually the greater internet will eventually be the government; that is, we the people will govern.

At this point, there is no sense in speaking of war; if and when the revolution occurs it will be the voice of the many simply overwhelming the status quo, and its nature will be peaceful.

Mar 30 2012:
Here's a change that will solve the financial crisis: add abundant free energy. Because money is merely an accounting of meaningful energy expended in an energy-scarce society, free energy removes the need for money in all its forms (barter, trade, work exchange, cash, electronic funds...) when We also add robots to do all the necessary work no One wants to do.

Mar 28 2012:
Jolie I agree with you but try to look at this from diferent point of view, we have already a lot of great ideas, we have a lot of great tools but we don't really use it. Through the financial crisis, maybe rather through the current political/financial system we don't realy use our potential. Look at what is going on in Greece now,about 50% of young people are unemployment, 50% of young people which could have great ideas, which could change the world do nothing, they just spend time trying to survive. The same things start going on in other countries such as Poland. A lot of young people which have good education background are unemployed or doing some basic jobs. How many of us do what realy want to do? How many of us do something what could change our future?

Jedrek I hope that is not to late and I think that now is a goot time for change because people started to notice that now we don't realy have any choice because "representative democracy" just doesn't work.

Ailwyn I know that write off debt is not a solution, but I am sure that debt is the reason.
Anyway have you ever think about why for example FED can create money but goverment of USA, UK etc can't do this? Google "Money as a debt" and watch simple movie and try to think about it.

Apr 3 2012:
50% unemployment. Half the labour force is unproductive because there is no money to reward their labour. A solution would be to create a website where people sign up, fill out a "resume"/skills page, a contract and social security information. People can ask them on that site to do work - whether regular jobs or odd jobs. They don't pay with money - they pay with 'points'. The net balance of points is always 0. Each participant is allowed limited debt and interest is charged if you stay in debt too long. If you want to leave the site you need to either have a positive balance (which will be refunded in the cash equivalent) or pay back your debt (with cash equivalent). Participants would pay taxes on 'points' income earned on this site. Basically a websites parallel economy could allow people to remain productive when the general economy doesn't. It's a medium to allow the exchange of skills/labour when there is no money to facilitate it.

Mar 28 2012:
I am affraid it is too late now for the citizens to decide. We were robbed of our choice good few decades ago, but perhaps the recent crisis was some sort of icing on the cake in this matter. Our current political choice boils down to either pepsi or coke. We can only choose nuances of taste.

Tomasz, if you haven't been to our country for some time, I can assure you that the choice is between having a cross hanging in the classroooms or not. In France the choice is whether to ban the use of burkas or the term 'mademoiselle' or not. In UK the choice is whether to send somebody who writes under influence sth. stupid on their wall to prison or just custody.

All I am saying is that the citizens have been deprived of their choice. No matter who wins the elections they all have to comply with the global governance agenda set by G7. And who knows if it is G7, maybe not even this.

So, in my opinion there is no way to change the rules unless there is some kind of, say, rebellion or simply war.

The net... it is a useful tool, it has surely helped to spark some change around the world (take North Africa) but then again, it lacks the soft power culture has. All the net can do in my opinion is to spark a rebellion but never a peaceful change.

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